Baked Rigatoni Pasta

We had this pasta for dinner last night, and it was a "new to us" recipe. It makes a large dish, so if you don't have a huge family to feed I would suggest dividing into two servings and freezing one. We could have done that to feed our crew of 5. Our youngest doesn't really enjoy most pasta dishes, so I did know going in that he wasn't going to eat this. The other boys ate it and liked it. I served it with a bagged Caesar salad and garlic bread. Kate from Naptime Kitchen talks often about doubling a recipe and making one for dinner and one for the freezer. That's my goal with recipes like this that I know we will like. I will do that next time, or I will make an 8x8 dish for dinner and freeze one about the same size. 

Ingredients:

2 tsp olive oil (I actually didn't use this)

1 lb ground beef (90% lean)

1 lb ground Italian sausage

1/2 c chopped onion

2 tsp minced garlic

24 oz jar marinara (Carbone's Tomato Basil is excellent)

8 oz can tomato sauce (I used the one that has basil and garlic)

salt and pepper to taste

16 oz Rigatoni pasta

Mozzarella cheese (I used that whole bag)

cooking spray

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray.

Boil a large pot of salted water. Once boiling, toss in the pasta to cook to al dente. While waiting on water to boil/pasta to cook, prepare the meat sauce.

If you use the oil, heat it in a large frying pan to medium high heat and add the beef, sausage, and onion. Cook until the meat is done, breaking up the meat. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds. Add the marinara and tomato sauce, bring to boil, and simmer.

Once pasta is cooked, drain. Then mix pasta and meat sauce in the large pot used to cook pasta. Toss to mix and pour into prepared baking dish. Top with cheese. Bake covered for 20 min, and then uncover and bake for 15 min or so until the top is browned slightly. 

*If freezing, prepare to the point pasta is ready to go into oven. Let cool then cover and freeze. To cook after freezing, allow to thaw then cook covered for about 30 min or until center is hot. Uncover and bake until cheese is browned. Cooking times may be longer or shorter depending on size of pan. Just check center of pasta to make sure it is hot.

Start to finish time is just about an hour.